The present invention relates to a system for the mounting of shelves on a substantially rectangular load carrier having four identical columns arranged in the corners thereof, said system comprising columns having a rectangular profile with four side faces, a substantially rectangular shelf of a length which is shorter than the distance between the columns of the load carrier, on which shelf at least one holder is mounted that can be inserted into complementary slots in the columns of the load carrier, said slots being configured with support faces with which the holder is capable of engaging in such a manner that the holder supports on the column.
Load carriers, such as carriages for handling goods, plants, products, etc., are widely used in the retail business, and often they are provided with a set of front wheels and a set of rear wheels mounted on the underside of a bottom frame having vertical columns that extend upwards from the corners of the bottom frame. One or more shelves are arranged for supporting the load charged to the carriage. Usually, the shelves are connected to each of the vertical columns by means of hooks arranged at the corners of the shelves. The hooks are configured to engage with slots arranged at suitable intervals in the longitudinal direction of the columns, and the shelves can hereby be mounted or dismounted, moved and/or removed depending on the use situation. That the shelves are removable also means that load carriers take up less space during return transport in empty state.
Within the field of working environment, there is an ongoing development towards automated processes whereby the shelves are mounted in the columns by means of robots. It is a drawback of the known systems, as described eg in Danish patent No. 139 747, that the shelves are, during mounting, first to be mounted in the one column and then in the other. The reason for this is that the distance between the vertical side faces of the columns is shorter than the total length between the holders of the shelf.
In practice the known construction thus entails that the shelf is to be introduced between the columns at an angle to the vertical, following which the holders of the shelf are introduced into the slots of the column, first at the one side and then at the other side, before the shelf is capable of carrying loads.
Within the field of handling equipment, ever increasingly strict demands are made to the automation of processes, efforts being made to replace uniform work and lifting by machinery.
By the known systems, the automated process is to take place by the machine first inserting the shelf in an inclined position between two columns, following which the holders on the one shorter side of the shelf are inserted into the slots on two columns, following which the angle of the shelf is changed to horizontal, while at the same time the holders at the other short side of the shelf are inserted into the slots of two other columns.
This process, which requires that a robot performs both rotating and linear movements, is technically complicated and hence costly to automate.